5 Guys Hamburgers 5 Guys Hamburgers, started in 1986 by Jerry Murrell, his wife and his four sons, began as nothing more than a small burger shack in a Virginia strip mall. Jerry started the company to give people better quality food and a different type of fast food experience. This is why 5 Guys makes their hamburgers ready-to-order with meat that has never been frozen, they offer a multitude of free toppings and the fries are never skimped on. During the beginning Jerry kept his day job while allowing his sons to oversee the shack’s operations. Jerry had always wanted to keep the company local, so he originally allowed for expansion to stretch only as far as the Washington D.C. area.
Not only have their menu remained the same but so have their suppliers. They have been getting their beef from the same supplier for more years than Murrel can actually remember, and use Idaho potatoes instead of faster-growing cheaper potatoes from Florida and California (Melnick, 2011). Socially they set out to continually provide customers with their fresh made to order burgers and fries along with fresh add-on items like jalapenos and onions to name a few. Five Guys focuses on using their money to produce high quality food and still till this day do not advertise. Instead the company uses the money that would go to advertising to encourage employees to be courteous, clean, and proficient and food preparation.
When President Obama moved to the White House, a Five Guys staffer suggested sending him a T-shirt. “That’s cheap!” Murrell shot back. Playing coy worked, and soon Obama, trailed by TV cameras, stopped by a store. He ordered a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, fresh jalapeños, and mustard — a classic example of Five Guys’ formula that sells 2 million burgers a week and was named Zagat’s “best fast food burger” for 2010. For this reporter, evaluating the burger first-hand was problematic: I’ve been a vegetarian for more than a dozen years.
At the end of 2010, Subway restaurants surpassed McDonald’s restaurant with 33,749 restaurants across the globe. The first Jimmy John’s opened in a garage in Charleston, Illinois on January 13, 1983 with used equipment and no menu or outdoor advertisement – selling four kinds of sandwiches and twenty-five cent Cokes. After giving samples around town, the business began to thrive. In April 1985, Liautaud bought out his father’s interest in the business, becoming sole owner. He opened his second store in Macomb, Illinois.
White Castle began in 1921 by founder Billy Ingram and the White Castle hamburger is introduced in the market. The name White was meant to describe the company’s purity and cleanliness and Castle signified strength and stability. According to the company’s recent press release, White Castle was the first fast food hamburger chain, founded in 1921and now operates more than 400 restaurants in eleven states (2010). The original success of the company was in its marketing because before 1921, the hamburger was an undesirable product (Goldberg, 2010). In terms of fast food restaurant life span, even twenty-five years in business can seem like an eternity.
Schlosser shows the effects of the fast food revolution on the American economy when he states, “The McDonald's Corporation has become a powerful symbol of America's service economy, which is now responsible for 90 percent of the country's new jobs” (4). “The Founding Fathers” starts off by giving background information on Carl N. Karcher. Carl grew up on a farm Sandusky, Ohio with six brothers and one sister. His father always instilled in him a belief of working hard for a better life. So when Carl got the opportunity to go work for his uncle in Anaheim, California he went for it.
Because of customer demand the chain began to open stand alone restaurants in 1986, it now has 938 stand alone restaurants around the country. To be true to their mission “Be America's Best Quick-Service Restaurant” the company has drive through only restaurants for fast service and added convenience to their customer. Chick-Fil-A has also licensed, non-traditional outlets; this program allows licensees to serve delicious Chick-Fil-A food in settings such as college campuses, hospitals, airports, and business and industry locations. One creative approach that the company used was their advertising; this approach set them apart from other restaurants. The use of cows to put their restaurant out on the market was a success.
In the documentary film Super Size Me, the director and main person, Morgan Spurlock uses the convention, ‘jiggly camera’ to convey the theme that McDonalds and fast food slowly deteriorates and kills its customers. Spurlock is just a normal but very intelligent person who knows how to use his conventions well in a documentary. During the documentary, he takes on an experiment to consume only McDonalds, three times a day for thirty days. Most of the scenes that portray this experiment are taken on a handheld camera, which forms the ‘jiggly camera’ convention, which usually gives the viewer a realistic, first experience on the experiment. In one of the scenes, Spurlock is videoed lying on a bed with his exposed pot belly which is giving us proof of how fast food is deteriorating his health, making him obese and making him feel tired, depressed and exhausted.
Burger King and Taco Bell started in the 1950s, and Wendy's opened in 1969. Some chains, like Carl's Jr., KFC and Jack in the Box, existed before the Speedee Service System, but modified their cooking techniques after. McDonald's, which started it all, is now the world's largest fast-food chain. According to the National Restaurant Association, in 2005, sales of
Unlike Mcdonalds, Chick-fil-a serves the crowd a free dinner,10 coupons for free meals. This shows a lot of genorousity and a great appeal to fast food fans. For the past two years , the Atlanta-based chain was named “best drive-through in America” by the quick-service resturaurant trade. (QSR MAG) The employees at Chick-fil-a strive to complete orders within 90 seconds in the drive through window and 60 seconds at the counter. Some might find it appealing how Chick-fil-a shares corporate values such as all locations being closed on Sunday,as a day of rest and worship.